Mark's 37th Birthday

Mark and I didn't get to go out last night after all. He was just too tired and sick. Kathryn Ellis dropped off two pizzas, though, along with a basket of goodies from the church staff. After we ate, I went into town and got "Mean Girls." Kaitlyn had asked me to watch that with her to get an idea of what life is like for her at school. I must say, it was an eye opener.

Having a teenager has helped me to lose a lot of my resentment over having missed out on junior high and high school. Yes, I missed out on drama and sports, dances and dating ... but my dad wouldn't have allowed dating or dancing anyway, and I never was very good at (or had much interest in) sports. And the nastiness that kids subject each other to ... It's awful! Sometimes I think maybe I was actually kind of lucky, in some ways, not to have to go through all of that.

I was really proud of Kaitlyn this week. She and Shawne have apparently tried to use their status within the junior high to try to reverse that tendency of kids toward gossip and backstabbing. For whatever reason, Kaitlyn is quite popular (something she definitely did NOT inherit from her mother, who was always a mousy dweeb!). More than once, she has stuck up for the underdog, and this week she went so far as to intervene after an actual fist fight. The guy who threw the punch is a football player. He has now been suspended. The other kid is rather unpopular. Imagine his position in the school now. Golden Boy has been suspended because of a fight with Geek Wad. Obviously this is somehow Geek Wad's fault, right? I mean, really! Who's going to take Geek Wad's side in this? Well, Kaitlyn not only called and instant messaged several people, but she got up in class -- two classes! -- and said, "Look, people, we have to stop picking on him." She said, "I may lose friends over this, but if I do, they weren't that good of friends to start with." Now, if she would just show that kind of compassion toward her own brother ...

Anyway, I was talking about Mark's birthday, once upon a time, wasn't I? As I said, we didn't go out last night, so this morning Kaitlyn suggested that we use the gift certificate to go out to lunch at Golden Valley Brew Pub. We had such a great time. The boys behaved themselves, and it was just a really laid back, relaxing time. When Mark went out to the van to get his jacket, I asked the waitress if they did anything for birthdays. Shortly after Mark returned, he was presented with a large hot fudge and caramel sundae, complete with a candle.

We gave him gifts, too: a couple of cars from Cars (the movie), some chocolate bars, and some of the dollar movies that Walmart is selling these days, mostly sci-fi and other such stuff to keep his mind occupied on the many long nights he is up sick and alone. I also ordered him a gift which hasn't arrived yet. (Darn! Oh, well. It'll make the fun last longer.) But he seemed to like best the gift I bought for him when I went to the coast last time. It's a letter opener--a skeleton in a biker's jacket. It gives me the heebee jeebees, but Mark seems to think it's pretty cool. And that is the goal, after all.